On Wednesday afternoon, Mother Nature delivered a precursor to
summer severe weather with some sporadic strong winds across
portions of Southern Ontario. A few bands of heavy showers and the
odd thunderstorm raced across the region accompanied by wind gusts
generally up to 70 or 80 km/h and many reports of small hail. There
were a few notable exceptions where the wind gusts exceeded the
warning threshold of 90 kilometres per hour along with some damage.
An Environment Canada survey team assessed the damage to two
partially constructed new homes in Brampton and concluded it was
caused by a downburst (straight-line winds) of 80 to 90 km/h.

They also assessed damage to the northwest of Mount Forest. An EF1
tornado has been confirmed 7 kilometres northeast of Clifford. It
occurred around 3:50 P.M. EDT Wednesday afternoon, and carved a
damage path about 3.5 kilometres long and up to 200 metres wide.
Three bolted-down grain bins were ripped off of their cement bases
and blown up to 200 metres away. The corner of a barn was also
severely damaged. A number of mature trees were snapped off or blown
over. The wind was estimated at 170 kilometres per hour. The EF
scale is the Enhanced Fujita scale and rates the strength of
tornadoes based on the damage they cause. The high end of the EF1
range is between 155 and 175 kilometres per hour.

Meanwhile in Northwestern Ontario, the intense disturbance
responsible for the summerlike thunderstorms in Southern Ontario
delivered a mantle of fresh deep snow.

The following is a summary of weather event information received by
Environment Canada as of 9:30 A.M. EDT this morning.

1. Summary of damage or wind gusts in kilometres per hour:

Sarnia: 96 at 2:06 P.M. EDT.
7 kilometres northeast of Clifford: Damage to a barn and a number of
farm buildings and some trees toppled near 3:50 P.M. EDT.
Brampton: Two houses under construction damaged around 5:20 P.M.
EDT.
Toronto Pearson Airport: 96 at 5:31 P.M. EDT.